Well, humility really prevents me from bragging too much, so I’ll just have to say the winner is Steelers Nation for what appears to be an excellent haul from the college ranks.

To recap the results of the contest, I made three correct guesses in my alternate mock that began with an OLB selection. I had guessed Eli Harold on the assumption that Dupree would never make it to the 22nd pick, but I am happy to be wrong on that one because things broke the Steelers way.

In that mock, I predicted the Steelers would choose an OLB, two CBs, a WR, and a TE in the first five picks and indeed that’s how it worked out. In terms of names, I correctly predicted Golson, Coates, and James, but missed on Dupree and Grant (having instead guessed at Harold and Rowe). Still, for me this is not only a personal best but almost ridiculous good luck.

I have been waiting by my phone for hours, but for some reason the FO has not yet called to invite me to join the scouting department. Maybe Colbert is afraid of being upstaged.

The runner up was Abennihana, who correctly predicted Jesse James and Gerod Holliman, and as a bonus also identified UDFA Cameron Clear.

Steel Balls exists because way back in the day the P-G chat regulars were looking for a place to post their prognostications so that everyone could revel in their brilliance. It seems that every fan has a memory of being right about pretty much everything in Steelers history, unlike the always flawed coaching staff, front office, as well as local and national media.

Turns out that maybe our memories are a little inaccurate and that we don’t guess correctly nearly as often as we seem to recall. Once those predictions are posted for all the world to see and review, it becomes more difficult to be so omniscient as we might wish.

So here is your chance to put your brilliance on display. We’ve all enjoyed reviewing various draft options and mock after mock for the past couple of months. Now that the draft is upon us, let us record for posterity our best prognostications, after which we can know who shall own the bragging rights for best Steelers insight.

As usual, I will consider myself successful if I get even one pick right, but I know the rest of you aspire to better accuracy than that.

Here are the rules:

1. We are only interested in Steelers pick predictions. This is fitting in that only the Steelers matter.
2. Remember you are predicting who you think the Steelers WILL pick, not who you think they SHOULD pick. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to drone on about the drafting incompetence of Colbert and Tomlin as the year progresses. Our purpose here today is to predict what they will do, “stupid” or not.
3. You must provide a projected pick for each round including comp picks.
4. You can provide as many as two lists. We all know that missing the first pick, particularly if the position selection is wrong, will immediately kill the rest of your predictions. As such, you get a mulligan in that you can have two completely different lists.
5. Whoever gets the most correct picks in a single mock list will be declared the winner. Correct picks are correct names, not necessarily correct rounds. The first tiebreaker is the quantity of correct names AND rounds. The second tiebreaker is the number of correct picks in both lists (assuming you submit two different lists).
6. Ravens suck.

Have at it ladies and gents!

Let me be the first out the door with a quickie mock draft. As always, I expect to be 100% wrong (although last year I got one pick right and at least one other where I was way more right than the Steelers). I post this anticipating humiliation and without the benefit of a lot of inside info, without any idea of what might happen in free agency, or, let’s be honest, without much in the way of football knowledge.

It’s easy to say the Steelers need to pick a cornerback high in the draft, but I and most fans have been saying that for three years. It’s even more true now, what with Cortez Allen’s failure to launch and the ineffective season offered by aging Ike Taylor. Yet, the Steelers are in big trouble at outside linebacker with Worilds not exactly posting Hall of Fame results and perhaps pricing himself beyond his proven value in free agency, and with Jarvis Jones yet to prove he can hold down the position and remain healthy. They also need to resign Arthur Moats who can provide solid depth and rotation. If the Steelers fail to sign Worilds, OLB will certainly be an even higher priority and will almost certainly result in some kind of free agent signing.

Although tight end is not an emergency need, the Steelers do need to begin developing a replacement for Heath Miller. The emergence of a legitimate backfield receiving threat in Le’Veon Bell along with the development of a great receiving corps has reduced the pressure to have a first round caliber receiving tight end. Still, they should look for a strong prospect with solid hands and good blocking potential in the mid rounds.

Mike Mitchell hopefully will improve at free safety, but even so there is a need for depth at the position and an eventual replacement. An additional option at running back would be welcome, to supplement Josh Harris and Dri Archer in the backup role. Some competition would be welcome at punter, although the Steelers rarely spend a draft pick on a kicking position. Offensive line depth is always welcome as well.

I am going with the following positional choices (w/ updates 3/22):

1. CB
2. OLB
3. CB
4. TE
5. OT
6. RB
   • 6c – OLB
7. P

The Steelers should also get a late round compensatory pick, but for the purposes of Mock Beta I will ignore that.

Here are my specific player choices (w/ updates 3/22):

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